Categories Explained

Who did what and when? Auditing and logging refer to how your application records security-related events.

Authentication

Who are you? Authentication is the process where an entity proves the identity of another entity, typically through credentials, such as a user name and password.

Authorization

What can you do? Authorization is how your application provides access controls for resources and operations.

Configuration Management

Who does your application run as? Which databases does it connect to? How is your application administered? How are these settings secured? Configuration management refers to how your application handles these operational issues.

Cryptography

How are you keeping secrets (confidentiality)? How are you tamper-proofing your data or libraries (integrity)? How are you providing seeds for random values that must be cryptographically strong? Cryptography refers to how your application enforces confidentiality and integrity.

Exception Management

When a method call in your application fails, what does your application do? How much do you reveal? Do you return friendly error information to end users? Do you pass valuable exception information back to the caller? Does your application fail gracefully?

Input and Data Validation

How do you know that the input your application receives is valid and safe? Input validation refers to how your application filters, scrubs, or rejects input before additional processing. Consider constraining input through entry points and encoding output through exit points. Do you trust data from sources such as databases and file shares?

Sensitive Data

How does your application handle sensitive data? Sensitive data refers to how your application handles any data that must be protected either in memory, over the network, or in persistent stores.

Session Management

How does your application handle and protect user sessions? A session refers to a series of related interactions between a user and your Web application.